73

An interview with
Santrupt Misra,
Aditya Birla Group
HR Director and
CEO of Carbon Black
The Aditya Birla Group is an India-based multinational conglomerate. The Group has diversified business
interests and is a leading player in all the sectors in which it operates such as aluminum rolling, viscose
staple fiber, metals, cement, viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbon black, chemicals, fertilizers,
insulators, financial services, telecommunications, BPO, and IT services. Some 40 years ago the
company began to expand internationally. Over the past eight years, it has become five times bigger
in terms of revenue and three times bigger in terms of EBITDA. Now it has operations in 40 countries
and gets more than 56 percent of its revenue from outside India. McKinseys Rajat Gupta and Suzanne
Heywood talked with Dr. Misra in January 2012.

74

Perspectives on global organizations

Rajat Gupta
Suzanne Heywood

McKinsey: How do you connect employees to

leadership. We are growing as a company more

the company across so many different cultures?

rapidly than people grow, so we need to develop

more leaders at all levels. Simultaneously, we

Santrupt Misra: We have been able to make

need to create a very strong employer brand

the local people feel part of our company very

so that if we do not manage to develop enough

quickly while preserving what is important to

people, we can hire.

them. We have awards that honor individuals

and teams from across the world for outstanding

Weve found that this process of connecting

achievement. For example, a lady from Egypt

people with the company is a particular challenge

was honored for her exemplary role in keeping

with acquisitions. In an acquisition, you get a

the plant safe during the Egyptian revolution in the

group of people who have a memory and a

face of many threats. Similarly, a team from North

history, a pride associated with their organization,

America was honoured for technical innovation.

and you get their culture. To integrate your culture

Weve typically held the award ceremony in India

and that new culture of the acquired business in a

but have started holding it in different parts of the

globalized context, you have the national cultures

world. We bring the nominees together, even

and the organizational cultures, so in effect youre

the most junior employees in the organization,

trying to combine three or four things. Weaning

whether they are Canadian or Thai or Indonesian

people away from the way they have done things

or Korean. And we do a live Webcast to all

or questioning what they have done in the past

employees and their families globally. An equally

is very difficult, and during an acquisition youre

meaningful platform is our leadership center in

trying to mold the whole organization at the same

Mumbai, where many employees attend learning

time, which is far more difficult. This is one of

programs: in the elevator, thank you and good

several reasons that I think inorganic growth is

morning are written in seven languages, so

much more difficult than organic growth.

people dont feel that this is an Indian company

thats only telling me in Hindi what to do. Were

McKinsey: How have you used technology

also global in terms of talent development. Even

tohelp you operate globally?

though many people dont move for personal or

family reasons, all our internal job postings are

Santrupt Misra: Our use of information and

made available to all our employees in the world.

communication technology (ICT) has really helped

So I think they feel if they do want to, they can

us become global. For example, we acquired

move. This can be really helpful. For example, we

Colombian Chemicals six months ago, and the

have brought young Thai engineers to work in the

first thing I established was video connectivity

remote parts of India for six months on a project.

between them and our locations elsewhere and

They go back with tremendous experience and

mail integration so that they have access to our

can talk about how they were part of the activities

portal, our knowledge, our e-learning, and every

and festivals in India too.

other support.

As we grow further, we need to become

We have to be careful, though, to remain very

more efficient in moving knowledge and best

responsive locally. There has been a lot of local

practice around our organization. Part of this

empowerment at one level, but with the growth of

will be accelerating the development of peer

ICT we have become more headquarter centric.

75

This hasnt been a deliberate policy; its just that

to master the new logistics process internally

people in the distant territories have found ICT an

very quickly. Being honest, staying in touch with

easy way to kick the ball upstairs. Now we need to

customers, putting the sales and marketing

learn to push back, to say dont come back just

people in touch with their counterparts in other

because you have access to me. But we need to

regions, and moving people quickly lets us help

figure out how to make sure that empowerment is

those customers.

exercised within a framework where the risk issues

are well understood.

We have always been comfortable delivering

products and customer service through our own

McKinsey: How do you build connections to

people, our own channels, our own networks. As

local communities?

we expand, though, well need to be able to rely

on third parties, partnerships, and outsourced

Santrupt Misra: In every country we work in,

services. So were reimagining what we need

we become part of the community and we try

to do within the organization and what can we

to participate physically, not just make financial

deliver on behalf of the organization through a

contributions. Sometimes it is building physical

network of partners. We have to figure out how

assets, like a vocational training center in Thailand.

we create an integrated system that allows

In Egypt, there are no adequate community toilets,

us to deliverthe services and products to our

so I am trying to take an Indian organization that

customersefficiently.

puts up cost-effective public sanitary facilities to

Egypt to work with the government on public toilet

However, we are already able to manage a lot of

facilities. And after the floods in Thailand we were

supply chains very successfully: for example, our

providing tarpaulins from our factories and we sent

pulp comes from South Africa and from Canada,

our electricians to repair electric connections.

gets converted into fiber in India, Thailand, and

Indonesia; then the yarn is manufactured in seven

McKinsey: How does your global scale help

other countries; and fabric is made somewhere

you with customers?

else again. So we have been able to integrate

and manage supply chains across multiple

Santrupt Misra: Whenever our customers have

businesses. We also have strong relations with

been in need in their country, we have been able to

global customers and with global suppliers

use our global presence to provide them support

people who supply us pipeline equipment,

and services from other locations, sometimes at

motors, and even IT. We not only deliver

significant cost to us, just to make sure that our

products but also access products and services

customers understand we are a global company.

seamlessly across the globe.

To give an example, when the Egyptian revolution

happened and there was no transport and ports

McKinsey: How will you know when youve

were on strike, we offered to bring our customers

become a truly global corporation?

materials from Thailand and India to make sure

there were no stockouts at their end. We made

Santrupt Misra: One metric is the proportion

sure that our shipments from the factory were

of our revenue that comes from outside our

there, ready to be delivered whenever the port

country of origin. Our revenue base is already

was open for a couple of hours. We were able

fairly dispersed across different regions of the

76

Perspectives on global organizations

Santrupt Misra
Education

Fast facts

PhD in Public Administration,

India

Dr. Misra is a director on the

Aditya Birla Management
Corporation Private Limited
Board. He is also a member
of the boards of the Aditya
Birla Science and Technology
Company Ltd., Alexandria
Carbon Black Co. SAE., Thai
Carbon Black Public Co. Ltd.,
and Alexandria Fiber Co. SAE.,
which are part of the Aditya
Birla Group

PhD in Industrial Relations,

Aston Business School, UK

Career highlights
Aditya Birla
(1996present)
CEO, Carbon Black Business
(2009present)

Global Director, HR
Employment history with J.K.
Group, Tata Institute of Social
Sciences, Hindustan Lever Ltd.

Dr. Misra has received

several awards including the
Role Model & Exemplary
Leader Award at Asias Best
Employer Brand Awards 2010,
Singapore

He also holds multiple

fellowships including:
Fellowship of the National
Academy of Human
Resources (NAHR), US
Fellowship of the All India
Management Association
(AIMA)
And he is an Eisenhower fellow
Dr. Misra has published a book
and several articles. His areas
of interest include organization
development, change
management, management
training, and leadership

globe and about 58 percent of our revenue

importantly, we will know we are more global

comes from outside India. A second metric is

when our top 100 managers include people

diversity of employees; currently only about 28

from at least 20 nationalities; today there

percent of our employees are outside India. We

are 7 or 8. The same is true of shareholders.

operate in 40 countries and have people from

The last and most important criterion is how

37 nationalities working with us, but we need to

widely our corporate brand is recognized by

be still more diverse. Id like to see 50 percent

key stakeholders around the world. That is the

of our people be non-Indians by 2015. More

ultimate test of the global nature of a company.

Rajat Gupta is a director in McKinseys Mumbai office and Suzanne Heywood is a principal in
McKinseys London office.
Copyright 2012 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved.